Peanut Allergies Seen on the Rise – Dr. Lawrence B. Palevsky, M.D

MB Comment: This is a great article on peanut allergies and vaccines by Dr. Larry Palevsky. Dr. Palevsky (Our NYC pediatrician when Sebastian the Refusers drummer was born 12 years ago) has an excellent Holistic Child Health newsletter which you can read here and join the email list here.

Peanut Allergies Seen on the Rise

by Lawrence B. Palevsky, M.D

There is adequate scientific evidence that peanut oil has been used in vaccines since the 1960’s. If current vaccine package inserts do not contain the specific evidence that peanut oil, or peanut meal, is contained within the final vaccine product, it does not mean that peanut antigen is not in the final vaccine product. Vaccine manufacturers use different growth media on which to manufacture the vaccines. They do not report, and I believe are not required to report, the exact ingredients in all of the growth media. Therefore, we may not know whether peanut antigen is used in the vaccine manufacturing process just by reading through the package inserts. Our lack of knowledge about it does not mean it isn’t knowledge waiting to be discovered. And, it may, or may not, have anything to do with an attempt to purposely hide the information that peanut antigen is present in vaccines.

Nonetheless, I do believe it is a screw-up on the part of the FDA, CDC, and all other agencies in charge of reviewing vaccine constituents prior to licensing, to turn their heads away from the role vaccine food antigens play in contributing to the significant rise in food allergies in the pediatric and adult populations, and thus the rise in chronic disease.

The tetanus portion of any DaPT, tdaP, Dt, Td or Tt vaccine is grown on a Fenton-Latham medium derived from bovine casein, which can still remain as an antigen in the final vaccine product (http://us.gsk.com/products/assets/us_pediarix.pdf). Children receive 6 of these vaccines by the time they are 11 years old, and then as adults once every 10 years. Milk allergies and sensitivities have been exponentially on the rise, and these sensitivities are found to contribute to the inflammatory symptoms found in children and adults with many different chronic illnesses such as chronic otitis media, eczema, asthma, autism, and even bipolar disease and schizophrenia (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21176030, http://www.schres-journal.com/article/S0920-9964(09)00621-5/abstract).

Another source of casein that is potentially injected into the body is from the Menactra vaccine. Casein hydrolysate is used to make the Mueller-Hinton agar, which is the growth medium for the manufacturing of the Menactra vaccine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mueller-Hinton_agar).

The MMR is one of a few vaccines that contains egg protein, (http://www.merck.com/product/usa/pi_circulars/m/mmr_ii/mmr_ii_pi.pdf), and despite a recent study claiming that it is safe to give the MMR to children with egg allergies, children who are allergic or sensitive to eggs still have significant inflammatory reactions after the injection of the MMR. The lack of an anaphylactic response in children who ingest egg protein after they’ve been sensitized by an injection of egg protein in the MMR, does not mean they lack a reaction to, or lack the development of inflammatory symptoms as a result of the injection and ingestion of egg protein.

The Prevnar vaccine contains soy protein, and we’ve seen a large rise in allergies and sensitivities to soy protein in the population. (http://www.fda.gov/downloads/BiologicsBloodVaccines/Vaccines/ApprovedProducts/UCM201669.pdf).

A large subset of patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease have positive antibodies to Saccharomyces cerevisae, a known marker for diagnosing Crohn’s Disease (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11252413, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14745572). Saccharomyces cerevisiae is brewer’s yeast, and is used in the manufacturing of several vaccines, specifically, the Hepatitis B vaccine, where up to 5% of the vaccine can still contain this yeast. (http://us.gsk.com/products/assets/us_engerixb.pdf). Children receive 3 Hepatitis vaccines, starting at less than 12 hours of life. Brewer’s yeast is used a lot in foods and in the manufacturing of supplements, so an inflammatory immune response to ingested Sacchraromyces can flare up into major symptoms of disease in a subset of patients who have developed a significant immune reaction against the injected Saccharomyces from vaccines.

The ingestion of food proteins, that are also found as antigens in vaccines, and are injected into the body and automatically perceived by the immune system as foreign proteins, especially in the presence of an adjuvant like aluminum, is going to contribute to inflammatory symptoms that manifest in a myriad of ways, depending on the genetics and the constitution of each person affected. Some of these immune responses may not be IgE reactions. This is basic Immunology 101.

Peanut allergies are on the rise. Gluten sensitivities are on the rise. By an extension of how much we already know that vaccine food antigens are a likely contributor to the development of food allergies and sensitivities in children and adults, and a contributor to the development of chronic inflammatory symptoms, I believe it is reasonable to question, and seek to prove, whether peanuts and gluten are used somewhere in the vaccine manufacturing process. I think it would be naive of us to turn our back on the possibility, and even the probability of this link, especially since we can reasonably deduce that the current rise in casein, egg, and soy food allergies, and chronic inflammatory symptoms that improve once these foods are removed from people’s diets, are due to a prior injection of these food antigens in vaccines. Just because we don’t see the food antigens listed in the package inserts, doesn’t mean they aren’t in there.

Let’s compare the number of food allergies and sensitivities to dairy, eggs, soy, peanuts, and gluten in vaccinated children, to the number seen in unvaccinated children. Maybe it is a clinically significant difference (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15805992). Or better yet, let’s fund a study that does independent assays on all of the vaccines, looking for the peanut and gluten protein antigens residing inside them. We already know that casein, eggs, soy and yeast are in the vaccines.

It would be nice to think that experts who sit on the committees that approve vaccine safety and licensing would make note of the rise in allergies to these foods in the general population, and be able to make the link that the development of these allergies is due to the body’s immune rejection of ingested food proteins resulting from a prior immune reaction to injected vaccine food proteins. It would also be nice to think that at least the proper safety studies would be done to see if the injection of these food proteins manifests in a clinically significant way in humans. Many clinicians, and parents, are already seeing this connection. I believe, however, that these experts are not doing their due diligence, and are looking right past the evidence. There seems to be a concerted effort to avoid doing the studies that would solidify our scientific knowledge. Until then, I support the precautionary principle.